How many Saint are there?
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The quick response is “more than 10,000.” In all likelihood, it has already surpassed 11,000. The generally reported 10,000 number dates back to the completion of Pope Benedict XVI’s pontificate., which is already a decade old, and there have been several mass canonizations since then. For instance, the Church could never hope to identify every victim of the Ottomans’ slaughter in 1480. Because they died for their religion, the Church considers them saints, although we do not have their names.
The Latin term Sanctus, meaning “holy,” is where we get our English word “saint.” For the first few centuries of the Church, anyone who gained widespread renown for their goodness was awarded the honorific “saint.” This was especially true of martyrs.
The Vatican’s Congregation for Saints’ Causes was established in 1588 to assist in standardizing the use of the term “saint” and to exercise greater discretion in the canonization process.
The lack of an extensive list of the 11,000 names concerns the Church. Furthermore, some of those names don’t even exist. For instance, the Church could never hope to identify every victim of the Ottomans’ 1480 onslaught. We do not know their names, but the Church recognizes them as saints since they dedicated their lives to the faith.
Also, many saints have been forgotten by history. Saints like Christopher are real people from history, but they lived so long ago that we have no first-hand accounts of their lives. Due to a lack of proof supporting his presence, Christopher was removed from the universal calendar around 1969.
You have to understand that widespread veneration in the ancient world led to the canonization of many ordinary persons. Since the Church did not have a set procedure for canonizing individuals, the process was likely more of a popularity contest. You were a saint if a lot of people liked you or the stories spoke about you. The truth is that some of these persons didn’t exist, had questionable morals, or were composites of multiple well-known people. In all honesty, we will never know for sure.
Someone like Saint Christopher fits this description. If he lived at all, it’s doubtful that he was known by the name “Christ-bearer,” which is what the name signifies. However, it is possible that he did exist, and we’re unaware of his identity. People who had met or heard about him in the ancient world spread his reputation after his death. Once again, we must be certain with records.
A person can only become a saint if God blesses them with a place in heaven. That is the true definition of a saint. (The term has multiple connotations; in a broad sense, all Christians are saints.) We can only speculate about how many souls are now here. But if the Church claims to meet a handful of saints annually (on average), that’s only the folks who have been through the canonization process. That can only happen if one or two miracles happen in your name.
Simply put, the Church does not “create” saints; rather, it only proclaims certain individuals to be holy.
In reality, the number of saints could reach the billions, or possibly the hundreds of millions, if God works as diligently as we imagine He does to preserve human souls. However, the Catholic Church acknowledges around 11,000 saints, and there are most definitely many whose names are unknown and whose historicity is questionable.